Chapter 19: Another Audition

The next day, Chen Nuo got up bright and early, put on the suit he had bought yesterday, and tiptoed out the door.

He and Li Er had arranged to meet at 8:30 AM at the entrance of his residential complex. Sure enough, at 8:25 AM, a red Beetle pulled over to the side of the road, the passenger-side window slid down, and Li Er waved at him from the driver's seat.

After Chen Nuo got into the car, Li Er stepped on the gas and they continued on their way.

"The clothes you chose aren't bad. You didn't pick them out yourself, did you?" Li Er kept her hands on the steering wheel and her eyes on the road ahead, not even turning her head as she spoke.

"Uh, well, a friend went with me."

Li Er didn't ask further, changing the subject: "Besides the director, the producer will be there today too. Don't get stage fright when the time comes. I've already sent them your photos and the film clips you shot previously; if they weren't satisfied, they wouldn't have asked you to come today."

"……What film clips?"

"The ones from the film you shot with Zhang Yi. Zhang Yi edited some clips of you for me and agreed to let me show them to the people over there."

"Ah?"

"Zhang Yi didn't tell you?"

"……No."

"Ask him when you get back."

Li Er drove very slowly, and after driving for more than half an hour, she parked in the underground garage of an office building on the edge of the Second Ring Road.

The Chen Kexin Film Studio was on the 23rd floor, with a sign in traditional characters that had a very artistic font design. There was a reception desk at the entrance, and a woman in her twenties with long hair was sitting behind it, head buried in her work.

Li Er's high heels clicked against the floor, and the receptionist looked up and immediately stood up.

Li Er walked over, nodded politely, and asked, "Little Lin, has the director arrived? We have an appointment for 10 o'clock."

"Professor Li, the director has already arrived. I'll take you over right now."

Chen Nuo followed behind Li Er, and the three of them walked to an office near the back. The young woman knocked on the frosted glass door, then pushed it open and said, "Director, Professor Li is here."

"Professor Li, it's so much trouble for you, introducing us to another excellent actor." A slightly chubby middle-aged man said in broken Hong Kong-accented Mandarin, standing up from behind his desk and coming to greet them with a beaming smile.

He wore his shoulder-length hair parted in the middle. Unlike the ponytail Zhang Yi tied himself, his hair was clearly meticulously styled, with every strand neatly tucked behind his ears. He wore black-rimmed glasses; his eyes were small but very spirited.

Standing up with him were two people on the sofa, a man and a woman. The man was about 50, a bit stout, with a round belly and a gold watch on his wrist.

The other woman looked very delicate and was not very tall; Chen Nuo recognized her. Her surname was Zhou.

"Hello Director, hello Mr. Liu, hello Zhou Xun!" After Li Er shook hands with the two men, she hugged the delicate young woman, "Long time no see. I didn't expect you to be the lead actress in Director Chen's film. You've kept it very well under wraps."

"Professor Li, long time no see. It's the director who is good at keeping secrets, constantly demanding that we all keep our mouths shut." Zhou Xun smiled, her eyes curving, looking very much like the person Chen Nuo had seen on television in his past life, though much younger than in his memory—truly picturesque and charming.

"Let me introduce you. This is the actor I'm recommending to you this time, Chen Nuo. He's 18 this year and is currently taking classes in my training course."

"Hello Director, hello Mr. Liu, hello Ms. Zhou." Chen Nuo stood obediently behind Li Er, greeting them one by one.

On the way, Li Er had introduced him to the people he might meet today and had also told him to find and watch Director Chen Kexin's classic works, *Comrades: Almost a Love Story* and *He's a Woman, She's a Man*, several times over the past few days.

Zhou Xun's sudden appearance here was something Li Er hadn't anticipated. But it should be a good thing.

Li Er glanced at Chen Nuo and sat down with the others.

They chatted idly for a bit, complaining about the weather in Beijing, reminiscing about the golden age of Hong Kong cinema in the 90s, and finally reaching a consensus: the future of Hong Kong cinema lay in the mainland, and sincere cooperation between filmmakers from both sides was the trend of the times.

Then, Chen Kexin's gaze finally fell on Chen Nuo.

"Little Chen, you're only 18 this year, right?"

"Yes."

"What works have you filmed before?"

"I've only filmed one movie."

"Is it the one Professor Li sent us?"

"Yes."

"Hmm, can you sing?"

"A little."

"Come on, sing your best song for us to hear."

"Okay."

Chen Nuo stood up promptly and sang. He was very confident in the song he had been practicing for the past two days because, in the karaoke scoring system, he had scored a full 10 points higher than Yang Mi, who called herself a singing goddess.

After he finished singing "Legend of the Hungry Wolf," Li Er's face turned grim, Zhou Xun had a smile at the corners of her mouth, and Mr. Liu and Chen Kexin looked at each other in dismay.

Li Er felt a slight regret. They had vocal classes in their training course; why hadn't she thought to ask the vocal teacher what Chen Nuo's actual level was!?

It turned out that his "a little" really meant he only knew a little, because he didn't know the other ninety-nine percent!

"Very poor, one could say tone-deaf." That chubby Mr. Liu spoke up, "Professor Li, I'll be blunt. We are making the first musical in Chinese cinema. We want to build a monument here so that thirty or forty years from now, whenever someone mentions Chinese musicals, they will still think of us. So we value details; we prefer to use the original vocals rather than dubbing, and this student Chen's singing voice is a bit far from our requirements."

Li Er was silent for a moment, then suddenly beamed, two small dimples appearing on her slightly chubby cheeks, "Mr. Liu, you have a point. Director, what do you say? Shall we call it a day then?"

Chen Kexin hesitated, looked at Li Er, laughed, and said, "How could we? Although we are filming a musical, it is still a movie, not a pure stage musical; acting is still the priority. Since you're already here, let's try a scene. Ms. Zhou Xun, would you mind acting as a partner for student Chen Nuo? Please."

"No problem, what shall we perform?" Zhou Xun nodded readily.

"Let's do an improvised performance. Zhou Xun, you play a big star, and Chen Nuo, you play a reporter. You want to interview Zhou Xun, but Zhou Xun is very busy and doesn't want to deal with you. For the rest, you can improvise freely. Okay?"

Zhou Xun and Chen Nuo both nodded.

"Then let's begin! I'll clap the slate for you, 3, 2, 1, action!"

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(End of chapter)